The Lost Sheep

Just this last month in October, I got the opportunity to travel to the village of Chevak, Alaska with a Carry the Cure team. Carry the Cure is a ministry here in Alaska that focuses on suicide prevention in the villages. They do an assembly during the school day and then invite everyone out to a meeting at night where they preach the gospel. They are seeing mass salvation happening wherever they have the opportunity to present the gospel. On this trip we saw lots of people giving their lives to Jesus during the meetings.

The plan for this trip was to hit three villages in 3 days, which is a whirlwind of a trip. But we woke up the second morning to ice fog covering the ground, so we were stuck. The third day we woke up, and the wind was blowing too hard to fly, so we were stuck again. I knew that it meant we wouldn’t make it to the other villages on the trip, but I was loving it because we got to really pour into the people.

On the third day that we were there, the coolest thing happened. I had mostly been hanging out in the school for the last couple days because the weather was crazy, and there isn’t a ton of places to go. Although Chevak is a bigger village, and they have two stores, that is pretty much it. But on the third day my friend Ross was talking to one of the local guys, and He invited us over to this little community center for a cup of coffee and Internet access. We went over and hung out. Ross was checking his Facebook and I was just chatting with the guy who had invited us. While I was talking to the guy I got a word of knowledge that he had a problem with his lower back, so I asked him if this was true. He said, “Yes, I do. How did you know that?” I told him that God Loved him and still speaks today, and He told me because He wanted to heal him. He let us pray for him, and while we were praying for him a picture of a wreck popped into my mind. So I asked him if his back was hurt in a wreck. At this point this guy starts getting rocked. He was in shock as to how I knew all this, and he started feeling the fire of God on his back. So we prayed and prophesied over him and just got to encourage him. He was already born again, but he got healed, and he said that the constant discomfort that he always had was gone. Praise the Lord!

So after we hung out there for a bit, the guy said, “You guys should go to the stores and invite people to the meeting tonight.” So we left there and went into the first store. I found my favorite iced tea that I can’t even find here at home. Then we went to the second store. On the way to the second store Ross ran ahead a little bit and beat me there. When I arrived he was already inside and talking to this young guy. I walked up to them, and Ross was sharing his testimony with him. Then, he let Ross pray for him. After that, we were getting ready to walk away, and I looked at this kid and just felt the heart of the Lord for him. I just began to share the gospel with him. I told him about the Love of God and why Jesus came. I told him my testimony about getting set free from drugs and alcoholism without even having to try, and how the gospel changes us from the inside and makes us a new creation and sets us free from sin. I shared the testimony of the guy we had just prayed for, which God healed, and how God was real and active today in the world. I told him that Jesus wanted his life to demonstrate His kingdom and goodness on the earth. I asked if he wanted to get born again, and he replied, “Yes.” We prayed with him to give his life to Jesus. When we were done you could see the kid’s face light up. He said, “Wow man. I feel light.” Which I think is just the greatest thing because that is exactly what happens; God transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We stood there and rejoiced with this guy for a few minutes then we invited him back to the school to hang out with us for a little while. On the way back to the school he was walking next to me, and he said, “Wow man, I did not expect this today! It’s like you guys came into that store just for me!” I told him that we did come just for him! I got to tell him the story of the lost sheep and how God finds more joy in what just happened to him than anything else that happens. It turns out that this guy had been thinking about killing himself for the last few days. He said that now he felt joy and happiness in his heart. We got to spend the next few hours just praying for him and loving on him, filling him with truth.

The next day the skies were clear blue, and we flew home. Now wouldn’t it be just like our Father to change the whole trip just for the one?!